This newly created position highlights Mount Sinai’s emerging role in the development of novel drugs and diagnostic products.

New York

– March 19, 2012 /Press Release/ ––

Scott L. Friedman, MD, Fishberg Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, has been appointed Dean for Therapeutic Discovery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. This newly created position underscores Mount Sinai’s emerging role in the development of novel drugs and diagnostic products.

In his new position, Dr. Friedman will work closely with the Office of Technology and Business Development, the Experimental Therapeutics Institute, and with researchers throughout Mount Sinai to implement strategies to enhance therapeutic discovery and identify molecules that can be commercialized through collaborations with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

"Dr. Friedman is the ideal person to shepherd Mount Sinai into a new phase of innovation, with bench to bedside medical discoveries that may result in high-impact therapeutic products," says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "The creativity of Mount Sinai’s physicians and scientists, combined with the unique capabilities of the pharmaceutical and device industry, will result in the discovery of important new therapies for serious medical diseases."

As the cost of developing a new drug continues to rise, companies will increasingly look to top research institutions such as Mount Sinai to provide concrete scientific advances.

"Mount Sinai is uniquely positioned as a translational academic center that provides outstanding patient care, and generates discoveries that are of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry," says Dr. Friedman. "We have a lean, integrated structure that is responsive to the rapidly changing world of drug discovery and development."

An internationally renowned physician-scientist, Dr. Friedman holds eight patents and serves as a consultant to more than 40 companies in the field of liver fibrosis. He will continue to serve as Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases in the Department of Medicine, a position he has held since 2001.

Under his leadership, the division has grown into the largest liver medicine program in the United States, incorporating the largest clinical liver fellowship training program in the country, a postdoctoral fellowship training grant supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and an Alcohol Research Center focused on fibrosis that is supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The division conducts international clinical trials of novel hepatitis treatments, and collaborates on an enormous national clinical and investigative liver cancer program, which incorporates groundbreaking clinical trials and NIH-sponsored basic/translational research.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by US News and World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2011, US News and World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 16th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation's top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Of the top 20 hospitals in the United States, Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and US News and World Report and whose hospital is on the US News and World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.